Apple's 'News' App has Journalists Worried

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oi-GizBot Bureau

Posted By: Gizbot Bureau

Published: Wednesday, June 10, 2015, 18:02 [IST]

Apple's announcement of its latest News app has taken the media world by storm. The journalists are worried about the control on the distribution of news when an app is algorithmically compiling stories from the world's biggest media organisations, CNN Money reported.

"News orgs flail helplessly as domineering companies like Facebook and now Apple take control over consumption," technology journalist Dan Gillmor tweeted.

The News app would be a personalised magazine of sorts, with a wide range of news stories and sources.

But apps seems to be the way to reach many more readers and viewers. Participating news outlets will keep 100 percent of the money they make by selling ads attached to their articles.

But they will cede some control over the news reading environment to Apple.

Individual news apps and individual news brands aren't the primary point of contact with news any more. They are raw material, feeding into broader platforms.

Matt Galligan, who co-founded the news app Circa, said this shift will be "great for the consumer" and for publishers who take advantage of it, but "the death knell for the stubborn and slow".

"No longer will we be loyal to any one news provider, but rather, we'll be loyal to the places that deliver us news right within the products we love," Galligan was quoted as saying.

"It will be a tumultuous time and a rude awakening for anyone believing that they can shore up their traffic and keep people coming back to their properties alone," he added.

Many publishers have decided that the deals with Facebook and Apple are worth trying.

Mark Thompson, the CEO of The New York Times Company (NYT) has said that the potential gains are enormous.

"The benefits of participation in other peoples' platforms is potentially vastly greater distribution than we could ever expect to do quickly with our own digital offerings," was quoted as saying by Mashable.